Congratulations to debut novelist Madeline Miller who has won the Orange Prize for fiction with her first novel The Song of Achilles. The Orange Prize celebrates women’s writing and I’ve always found it to be the literary prize that I’ve most identified with….
Richard and Judy Summer Picks Revealed
23 May 2012 by 2 Comments
Big news for 10 authors today – Richard and Judy have announced their summer reads and the 10 lucky writers will find their work turned into bestsellers almost overnight. As usual there’s a good mix of titles and I’m sure everyone will find something to enjoy in the selection…
Orange Prize Shortlist Announced
19 April 2012 by Leave a Comment
The shortlist for this year’s Orange Prize for fiction has been announced. The nominees for the 17th annual award for excellence in women’s fiction are….
Desert Island Discs celebrated in two new books
9 February 2012 by Leave a Comment
I love the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, I currently have 198 episodes from the archive waiting patiently on my iPod. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the show which invites interesting (mostly very famous) people to tell us the 8 discs they would take…
Almost 4 million British children don’t own a book
7 December 2011 by Leave a Comment
Of all the news stories I’ve read recently, this is undoubtedly the most depressing. According to a survey by the National Literacy Trust almost 4 million children in Britain do not own a book. This represents almost one third of the kids in the UK, a massive rise from one in ten in 2005. I find this really quite upsetting, I think back to my own childhood and how many books I had and the magical lands that they took me to…
“Biography” of cancer wins award
1 December 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Emperor of All Maladies, a biography of cancer by oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, has won The Guardian First Book award and the £10,000 prize. Mukherjee’s book beat four novels on the shortlist including Booker nominated Pigeon English. Started as a small journal attempting to answer patients’ questions about their illness, the book grew…
Was Jane Austen Murdered?
15 November 2011 by Leave a Comment
Jane Austen, author of classic books including Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility, died in 1817 at the age of just 41. Since then there has been much speculation about the cause of death with suggestions including Addison’s Disease, Hodgkin’s Lymphona and Bovine Tuberculosis. The latest theory comes from crime novelist Lindsay Ashford is that the author died of arsenic poisoning, very possibly deliberately administered…
Galaxy National Book Awards Announced
5 November 2011 by Leave a Comment
A star-studded ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental in London last night saw the winners of the Galaxy National Book Awards crowned. Celebrating the best in British books and writing, the list of winners contains something for every reader and has some great ideas for Christmas presents. The winners are….
World Book Night 2012
25 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
World Book Night is an opportunity for those of us who love books to share our passion with those who may not be such big reading fans. In just one night 1 million books are distributed by over 20,000 ‘givers’ – a great celebration of adult literature..
Book Trailer – A Means of Escape
19 October 2011 by 1 Comment
A trailer has been released for A Means of Escape Joanna Price’s great debut novel which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. I’ve noticed that trailers – once the domain of the movie industry – are now becoming more and more widespread across a range of arts….